Selling is a process. How it works depends on the interests of your customers, not on the latest gizmos.

It runs like this: the baby shark arrives, its mother arrives, the rest of the family arrive. The shark family goes hunting. Smaller fish swim away. The end. 1.6 billion people have watched that. It was the biggest internet event in history.

And so what do we learn?

Certainly not that you have to have a YouTube video on your website unless it is very very exciting.

Generally teachers perceive themselves to be in a hurry and so don’t want to sit and watch a video (where timing is out of their control) when they can skim an article (where they are in total control of the interaction).

Thus what I conclude is that it is your audience who determines how we advertise. Teachers perceive themselves to be knowledgeable experts, informed about what’s what, and not wishing to be dictated to.

Yes, some may watch YouTube content. But they do so when the interest is there already. YouTube and similar devices are very hard to use to generate interest by people who are not already interested. For that you need a good headline and interesting writing style.

So if you have a product that needs to be seen in action, then get a video of it being used in a classroom and have that on your landing page for those who are interested. In your email describe the benefits and direct them to the landing page for more information.

Which brings me back to the four key elements in all successful advertising campaigns to teachers…

In the email you talk about the benefits of your product or service and what it can do for the teacher. Use words to grab attention and get the momentum going.

At the end link to a web page (the landing page) which sets out the features, has the pictures and video, and clearly and decisively leads to the conclusion of the order being placed or a phone call made or email sent to you.

Once you have got that right, ensure that you are using an email list that uses the personal email addresses of teachers so that you are getting directly to the people you want to talk to, and not to a school administrator who can then decide whether or not to forward the email.

And make sure the transmission goes through a server that is in the UK (such as ours) and which is recognised as being reputable.

If you are still not sure about this, you could opt for our Payment by Results advertising service in which you simply pay a commission on each sale you get as a result of our advertisements. To find out more please see our website. Or if you would like to talk about this further please call 01604 880 927.

Finally if you would like to send over a sample of what you are thinking of sending out and invite us to comment, free of charge, please do email Stephen@schools.co.uk